Excessive fuel consumption

Posted by prentice672 On 2016/8/7 23:14:33

The gas gauge in my '49 Custom 8 is inoperative (it was the float) and so I have to go by the trip meter to estimate when to get gas. So far, on two occasions, I've run out of gas at almost exactly 182 miles. That's only 9 mpg! I just bought the car about a month ago and it seemed more sluggish than I thought it should be, but I attributed it to overdrive and brake issues which I've since fixed. My '50 Ford, which has a higher power loading (30 lbs per hp compared to the Packard's 26 lbs per hp), performs like a Porsche compared to the Packard. Both cars have the same Borg-Warner overdrive and the Packard even has a higher rear end ratio (4.07 compared to 3.73 to 1). I'm worried that there is something seriously wrong with the engine. It only has 43,000 original miles. Now the pervious owner claimed he hadn't been able to drive it much due to illness, but I think he still ran it at least once a month. The car runs smooth and cruises nicely at about 65 mph on the freeway, but it accelerates very poorly. I checked the timing and it's appears to be correct. Any ideas out there?

Ron